


hiding out in a dream

by bellawritess



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: :))), Baltimore, CARS ARE FOR LOVERS, Driving, Established Relationship, Fluff, I WILL NOT BUDGE ON THAT, M/M, Nostalgia, Rating for Language, Reminiscing, Romance, alex drives stick because i am god and i say he does, baltimore fic count: three, for paige :) i hope this makes ur night a little better, four? i have no idea, it doesn't matter at all but this takes place in 2015, kind of a songfic but kind of also not, mathematically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28867980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellawritess/pseuds/bellawritess
Summary: Alex’s hand is resting against the gear shift and he’s humming under his breath to ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ as it plays. It’s easy to watch him drive when he falls into a rhythm like this, almost meditative in his motions as he shifts gears and cruises almost dangerously above the speed limit. Jack’s not the biggest fan of driving, and you can’t be, if you’re going to live in L.A., but he knows something about it has always appealed to Alex. Maybe just the freedom. Maybe the peace of mind that accompanies it.Besides, driving may not be Jack’s favorite, but sitting passenger side while Alex drives absolutely is.
Relationships: Jack Barakat/Alex Gaskarth
Comments: 15
Kudos: 18





	hiding out in a dream

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is for miss [paige](https://mukeaf.tumblr.com/) bc she said she's having A Night and i only have one skill so here i am. using my one skill. paige i know you don't have ao3 but this work is dedicated to you in spirit and also literally bc i just said it is so yeah. love you, hope this makes you smile <3
> 
> anyway i looped long way home the entire time i wrote this and as a result it is Kind Of a long way home fic but it's not, but it kinda is. but it isn't. it is but it's not. is that clear
> 
> oops ETA thank you [sam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellingatbabylon) for reading this and giving me Validation and in general being the coolest gal ever
> 
> tw for one throwaway mention of alcohol and that's it
> 
> guess where the title's from. just guess. you have one guess

“I thought it’d be different,” Jack says, looking out the window, “but it’s really…not.”

They’re on a drive through Baltimore. Why, Jack’s not sure; Alex is at the wheel and Jack is just along for the ride. This is often the case, both figuratively and literally, but Jack doesn’t mind. He’s happy to let Alex steer and Alex prefers it anyway. That should be the new relationship test — _which of you is the driver and which is the passenger?_ It sounds a little innuendo-esque, but honestly, so does everything.

“Why would it be different?” Alex asks. “Damn, dude, we weren’t gone that long.”

“I know,” Jack protests. “It’s just, I don’t know. You kinda just expect things to change when you’re gone.” 

“Nah, good ol’ Baltimore,” Alex says warmly. “She’ll always be here for us.”

That hadn’t really been Jack’s point, but, he supposes, it’s not worth arguing about. 

“So where exactly are we going?” he asks instead. “D’you have a destination?”

“Gross, who has a _destination?_ ” Alex looks over at Jack, a blinding grin on his face that cuts through the darkness surrounding them. “It’s about the _journey,_ baby. It’s about the going, not the getting there.”

Jack can’t fight off a grin. He rolls his eyes. “Alright, Fortune Cookie Gaskarth. You could’ve just said no.”

“No fun,” Alex says. They’re somewhere Jack just barely recognizes and couldn’t navigate to or away from, but Alex’s sense of direction is better than Jack’s. It’s a main road and there’s a 7-Eleven on one side and a gas station just next to it. Beyond the red light they’ve stopped at, it’s just more road, trees on either side, a speed limit sign promising that if they go above forty they’re going to be arrested and tried for their crimes.

“Do you even know where we are?” he asks anyway.

Alex makes a face at him. “Of course I do,” he says haughtily. “Where’s the faith, JB?”

“Well, _I_ don’t know where we are,” Jack says. “Other than that’s the 7-Eleven where Rian tried to flirt with the register lady to get a free Slurpee.” 

Alex laughs. “Oh yeah, that was there. That was hilarious.”

“I can’t believe it _worked,_ ” Jack says, shaking his head. “If I’d tried that shit at seventeen I bet she would’ve dumped the Slurpee on my head.”

“Aw, but you were so cute,” Alex says, patting Jack’s knee. Jack laughs.

“I bet you could’ve gotten away with it,” he says. “You were cute.”

Alex shakes his head, driving through the now-green light. “Nope. No I was not. You’re cute for saying that, though.”

“Well I definitely wasn’t cuter than you,” Jack says, “so you can cut that shit out right now.”

Alex huffs. “I thought you were.”

“No offense, Alex, but you have terrible taste in guys.”

This makes Alex laugh again, and he turns briefly to Jack, kissing his shoulder.

Jack faux-gasps. “Eyes on the road, oh my God, you are a threat to me and everyone around you.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Alex holds one hand up in surrender, the other fixed on the steering wheel. “I just love you. If that’s my crime, I’ll go straight to jail.”

“Uh, yeah, you will,” Jack says, holding up his hand to his face like it’s a phone. “Nine-one-one? Hello? Yeah, I have a crime to report. Yes, the crime of love. Yes, it’s sodomy. And his sexiness probably breaks several laws as well, so make sure to jot that down.”

Alex is laughing as Jack pretends to hang up the phone. “They’re on their way.”

“Well, it was nice while it lasted,” Alex says soberly. “Nice knowing you, Jack.”

“It was probably like a seven out of ten knowing you,” Jack responds. Alex punches his shoulder. 

“Put some music on, would you?” he says, gesturing to the music player between them. It’s Alex’s phone on the Bluetooth so Jack picks it up and unlocks it. He scrolls through Alex’s Spotify library until he locates what is, objectively, Alex’s best playlist — _DJ BOY IN DA HOUSE!!!_ , a playlist for when Jack is DJing off Alex’s phone (let no one ever say they’re unprepared) — and hits shuffle.

‘Toxic’ starts up, to Jack’s absolute delight. He locks Alex’s phone and then clicks it on again just to stare at the lock screen photo of the band, Rian carrying Alex bridal-style and Zack doing the same to Jack. Jack and Alex are holding hands and Rian and Zack are making twin expressions of very convincing distaste, and Jack loves them and he loves Alex and he loves his job he loves his friends and he loves his life so fucking much.

“Is this the DJ Boy playlist?” Alex asks.

“Holy shit, that was impressive,” Jack says. “Did you know that just from ‘Toxic’?”

“No, I knew it because it’s the only thing you ever play from my Spotify,” Alex says. “I wonder if I could actually tell, though.”

“What, like, if I shuffled any of your playlists you could guess which one it was from the first song?”

“Yeah.”

“You only listen to like three bands, though.”

“Hey, that’s so not fucking true! Try it.” 

Jack had been teasing — Alex makes a conscious effort to seek out new music all the time, and his library is full of artists Jack has never heard of — but he’s interested to see if Alex can guess anyway.

“Fine,” he says. “When the song ends.”

Alex inclines his head. “Obviously.”

The car keeps cruising and Alex is switching lanes and taking turns apparently at random. They seem to be running into every single red light, but once they get into the Spotify game, neither of them notice. Alex is pretty good at guessing unless the song that plays is a favorite — it takes him four tries to guess that ‘Ocean Avenue’ is playing from the _Shower Tunez_ playlist, although when ‘Tidal Waves’ plays he gets _This Is My Job And These Are My Friends_ right away.

“What the fuck is this playlist?” Jack asks, scrolling through it. “Is this all of the songs we’ve had features on?”

“And the ones I’ve been on, and the ones I’ve helped write,” Alex says. “I like having them in one place.”

Jack rolls his eyes. Alex is weirdly neurotic with his playlists, but whatever. Jack is weirdly neurotic about other stuff, so he’s not in a position to judge. At least it’s just playlists.

“Hey, wait, put on the driving playlist,” Alex finally says, waving a hand as if he’s going to take his phone out of Jack’s hand and do it himself. “That one’s good.”

So Jack locates Alex’s driving playlist and shuffles it, and then he puts the phone down as ‘Long Way Home’ starts up. Alex smiles to himself.

“This one’s on the friends playlist too,” he says.

“Wow, really?” Jack says. “Really, did you help write this song? Really? I would never have known if you hadn’t told me just now, wow. Thank you for telling me —” Alex hits Jack’s leg, laughing. 

“Fuck you. It’s a good fucking song.”

“I _know_ it’s a good fucking song,” Jack says, grinning and shaking his head. “You only played it five hundred thousand times when the album came out.” Never mind that Jack did too, listening over and over and picking out Alex’s vocals when he could hear them, mentally pulling apart the lyrics, guessing at which ones had been Alex’s contributions, wondering if the boys of 5SOS had known, listening to this song, that it hadn’t been about them at all. 

They’re quiet as the music plays. Alex turns onto another street and Jack realizes with a start that he finally knows where they are — about fifteen minutes away from their high school, close to their old job at Rita’s. 

Alex’s hand is resting against the gear shift and he’s humming under his breath to ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ as it plays. It’s easy to watch him drive when he falls into a rhythm like this, almost meditative in his motions as he shifts gears and cruises almost dangerously above the speed limit. Jack’s not the biggest fan of driving, and you can’t be, if you’re going to live in L.A., but he knows something about it has always appealed to Alex. Maybe just the freedom. Maybe the peace of mind that accompanies it.

Besides, driving may not be Jack’s favorite, but sitting passenger side while Alex drives absolutely is.

“Hey, there’s where Zack tried to teach us to skateboard,” Alex says all of a sudden. His voice has changed; it’s a little faraway, a little quieter. Not quite nostalgic, but getting there. 

“Oh, yeah?” Jack leans forward. He remembers that, and now that Alex has pointed it out he remembers being there, Zack laughing at their terrible attempts to stay on the board, showing off his own skateboarding skills like the asshole that he’s always been, deep down.

That feels like yesterday and a thousand years ago. Jack wonders how that’s possible.

“And there’s the tree you climbed and then were too chickenshit to jump down from,” Alex continues, pointing again. Jack remembers that, too. He’s surprised that Alex remembers; his memory is good for names and faces but usually pretty bad for stuff like this.

“Yeah, in like, eighth grade,” Jack says defensively. He exhales a chuckle. “Jesus, that was a long time ago.”

Alex doesn’t seem to hear him. They continue down the street, a wave of nostalgia washing over Jack as he recognizes his surroundings and his memories start to blur with reality. It’s like something out of a movie, the way he can almost see himself and Alex at sixteen years old, sitting side-by-side at the skate park, talking shit about their classes or getting drunk or wrestling or whatever the fuck else they’d gotten up to.

Alex’s voice breaks through Jack’s reminiscing. “That’s where you fucked up your knees showing me that shitty bike trick, remember?”

Of course Jack remembers. 

“And there,” Alex says steadily, pointing, “is where I fell in love with you.”

The world is both quiet and impossibly loud. Jack frowns a bit, trying to discern where Alex is pointing. “The skate park?”

But Alex once again continues as if Jack hasn’t said anything. “And there,” he says, turning his head, pointing at someplace behind them. “And there. And — fuck, did we pass Rita’s already? There too.”

“Alex.”

“And then I did it again everywhere we were for the next twelve years,” Alex says softly, dropping his hand back to the steering wheel. The car slows at a stop sign and Alex looks over at Jack. “And now I’m doing it again right here.”

Jack swallows. He knows Alex loves him because it would be impossible not to with how often he says it, and Jack always echoes the sentiment, because of course he loves Alex; it would be impossible not to do that, either — but there’s something very different in knowing how long it’s been. Twelve years. That would mean Alex has been in love with him since they were sixteen.

Jack would call it impossible, but they’re living proof that it’s not.

“That’s a long time to be in love,” he murmurs, reaching for Alex’s hand. “We’ve been in love a long time, huh?”

Alex leans in, kissing Jack over the gear shift, a smile on his face that springs back into place as soon as they part. “I sure have.”

“You think I haven’t been in love with you just as long?” Jack replies, rolling his eyes fondly. “My love, you have not been paying attention.”

Alex gently hums an acknowledgment and squeezes Jack’s hand before moving to shift gears. They should probably turn around and start heading back, but Jack is suddenly desperate to linger, to soak up the nostalgia while it’s this powerful, while the world still feels like it’s holding its breath.

Instead of turning, Alex drives through the stop sign, giving Jack an easy smile with sparkling eyes, and Jack exhales, reaching to turn the music up a little. 

Some things never change, but some things get better. This city is both of these things at once. Alex is both at once. And even as their love has changed and grown and become something mature and intentional, there’s been a fierce undercurrent that’s been there since the start, and that, Jack knows, will never ever change. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for joining me <3 i'm on tumblr [@clumsyclifford](http://clumsyclifford.tumblr.com/) if you wanna come say hello !!!


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